Changing Faces

Billy, one of the two security guys who ejected Len, had later informed Amber that her husband had come back only because he’d heard a rumour that Kim, the woman he’d been banging on the side, was living with her now. Apparently, those had been Len’s exact words. It didn’t surprise Amber to hear that but she had asked what Billy had said. His response was a rather sheepish, “I confirmed it.” Amber had smiled at hearing that and then given Billy a massive tip, almost the same as he’d earn in a week. He’d been incredibly thankful for the generosity, though she had made sure to issue his partner in her husband’s extraction, Bhavin, a substantial tip for his part as well.

Now though Amber isn’t in her apartment. Instead, she is with Kim who after the consultation with Doctor Cranston was offered the chance at being cured. The Doctor, and Kim for that matter, had been cagey on the details, but Kim had perked up immeasurably in the days since then. Except now she is clearly scared and who could blame her, especially one of the few things Amber had managed to extract was that this is a first of its kind type of operation. That alone had made Amber nervous on Kim’s behalf, but it was Kim’s decision and she’d made it. Doctor Cranston had admitted in a call later that it had taken a good deal of persuasion to get Kim to do anything other than admit defeat, but that she had come around once all the details had been laid out and properly explained.

“Miss Kelter, are we ready?” Doctor Cranston asks as she comes rushing down the white corridor at a much greater pace than Amber would have considered possible for the woman to achieve given her stature.

Kim nods. It’s all she can do. She has in the last day or so become almost incapable of speech. That sudden loss had hit both her and Amber hard. They’d cried together as a result and following that Amber had returned to staying at the blonde’s side incessantly.

“Good. Very good in fact. We’ll get you ready. Should only take a few minutes, and then we can begin the procedure. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to come in with her Mrs…”

“…Miss…Shamaya.” Amber says correcting the doctor who is not in a suit, like she had been for their meeting, but a typical lab outfit instead. Somehow it seems to gel less with the woman less than the suit Amber had seen her in that day she came to the apartment. Amber cannot say why but quickly moves on as she accepts that she is going to be forced to wait out here in this corridor.

“You may be more comfortable at home seeing as this could very well take eight or nine hours.” Esmeralda admits.

“Really? No, I’ll wait. I want to be here when Kim comes out.” At first Amber is shocked and then her shock evaporates leaving only her iron will.

After all, Amber has been alongside Kim throughout all of this, so she isn’t about to deviate from that now they are so close to… She doesn’t want to call it the end. End sounds so final and if this works, and it is an if she knows, then it isn’t an end. It’s something else. Beginning might work but at the same time doesn’t sit right.

“As you wish.” Doctor Cranston utters with a shrug in the seconds prior to her and a couple colleagues grabbing a hold of the bed Kim is splayed out on and then wheeling her off down the white corridor toward what Amber can only assume is an operating theatre.

Immediately, Amber is reminded of how much she hates being in medical institutions. They make her skin crawl. But you aren’t here because of what you want. You’re here for Kim. Amber reminds herself and when she does she stops fidgeting and feels her previously climbing pulse begin to slow once more. To help ease it further she focuses on a point some distance ahead of her on the blank wall that gives her absolutely nothing to look at.

Meanwhile in the operating theatre, Kim is no longer splayed out on the bed. Instead, she is being held within what she can only describe as a giant set of pinchers. However, they are exerting no pressure upon her. Rather, they are holding her in place a few centimetres above the surface of the bed she had been on moments ago. To her surprise she is calmer than she would have anticipated herself being by this point. Kim finds that oddly reassuring. Yet her reassurance does nothing to change the sensation which washes over her when the pinchers lift her higher, so that the bed can be wheeled away to then allow the pincers to pivot and hold her upright as if standing like she used to be able to except in mid-air, and that is one of dizziness. The dizziness she feels is a result of her being unable to reconcile the fact that she is upright without the use of her legs, even though she knows how it is that she is upright.

“Pulse elevated but within suitable parameters.” A male voice announces from outside of Kim’s line of sight.

“Proceed Miss Kelter?” Esmeralda queries to make sure the dying woman is still willing to be a part of what is supposed to happen next.

A vague attempt at a nod is the issued reply. It’s all the blonde woman can manage. If Kim were able to do more then she would but her disorder has deteriorated to such a pitch that her head is actually locked in place so that it does not loll about.

Thankfully, Doctor Cranston understands the meagre attempt at a response because it is precisely what she had been on the lookout for. Not the exact gesture issued to be fair, but something akin to it. Now that it’s been given, Esmeralda orders, “Affix and begin.”

Now in place, Kim is lowered, by way of the pinchers triple jointed arm which is around her mid-riff, until her feet are flat on the cool smooth white floor. It’s the first sensation the soles of her feet have felt in nearly two weeks. But even after such a short passage of time the sensation feels strange, foreign even, and in a manner that would suggest she has never felt anything similar before. She has, and yet her brain is arguing that fact and attempts to suggest this is all new territory. That alone should scare Kim, she thinks, but it doesn’t. She accepts it and suspects it won’t be the last time she believes that being on her feet is new to her. The blonde woman smiles at the thought but is still acutely aware of several of the other medical staff, who all form a part of Doctor Cranston’s team, as buzz around behind her affixing tubes to the needles they have just driven into her arms and down her back, which is exposed.

Her gown still covers her front; however the Doctor has explained that such a thing will not be the case throughout the procedure. Kim still isn’t comfortable with the idea but that doesn’t mean she is willing to let her modesty be the cause for her death.

She wonders if others would be as willing to forego their privacy if it would save their lives. She hopes that they would. To be that stubborn and not only refuse but condemn oneself to death because of something relatively trivial is wasteful. At least it is in her eyes.

With the tubes down Kim’s arms, back and legs now in place, a large cage is fitted to the back of her freshly shaven head. She would have to admit that the feeling of having her hair shaved off as unceremoniously as it has been over the last couple minutes was almost too much to bear. It was as if she finally felt like perhaps defeat might win. It’s also why she’d been inclined to ignore it as it happened. If Kim had not she doesn’t believe she’d have managed to get through to the point of someone announcing that the cage is in place and ready for the box.

It’s a decidedly bland name, Kim had decided when Doctor Cranston had explained this whole procedure to her, for something allegedly capable of performing the wonders it is said to be capable of. All that sounds decidedly less definitive than many might wish but the truth is that there are no guarantees that this will be successful. Doctor Cranston had been sure to emphasise that to Kim. Yet, the doctor had been, and by the look on her face still is, confident that this will work. If it doesn’t Kim won’t know. She’ll be dead, body and brain. It’s a terrifying but also exhilarating feeling that only continues to deepen when someone informs that the ‘box’ is in place.

Contrary to popular belief of what people may think happens when a scientific advancement is about to be attempted, there is no speech. Rather, Doctor Cranston nods and a series of buttons are pressed which Kim cannot see. She doesn’t need to as she immediately feels a sensation in the back of her head. It’s warm, welcoming she might go as far to say as she is told to relax. If she fights what is happening there could be complications. However, the blonde has no wish to fight what is being done to her. Though would have to admit, if asked, that the sensation is oddly soothing as it passes ever further over her head. Yet, as the ‘box,’ which is in fact a brain scanner works deeper into, or to be more accurately further across, Kim’s brain making a direct copy of everything about her, those sections shut down. The neurons will never fire again. For all intents and purposes they are dead once they’ve been scanned. And as they blink out one after the other a little more of the already dying Kimberley Kelter dies with them. In the end there will be nothing left of the woman other than a lifeless body, and yet that is all that would have occurred without this procedure too.

Thankfully, there is no pain. Plus this ‘death’ is a damn sight quicker way to go than the disorder that has been eating away at her at a steadily progressing rate of… She can’t think how long. That memory is either a part of the scan with that section of her brain dead, or has been broken off by her disorder. Either way it won’t matter as once the brain scan is complete it will be repaired. The repair will take hours. Much longer than the seventy minutes it’ll take to get a copy of Kim’s mind.

“Copy complete. Scan integrity is a hundred percent.” One of the doctors on Esmeralda’s team announces with a chirpy tone more than an hour later.

There is a quick round of cheers from everyone, except Esmeralda who orders, “Begin the repair.” With that repairs on Kim’s failing mind commence.

Hours later and Amber is in what can only be described as a fitful half-sleep. Her back is screaming in pain, which she intently attempts to ignore. Her pain is the result of her having stayed on the overly hard waiting chairs with their poor padding.

Suddenly there is a noise. It’s a loud almost bang that isn’t quite a bang. To be honest with her nerves as they are, as well as the pain in not just her back but throughout her body and the lack of sleep she’s been forced to live with, she can’t really think of any other word for the noise. That is why she does the only thing she can and has for every noise, there haven’t been many to be truthful, that has reached her ears, which is to perk up and check to see if anyone is headed her way. She is sure there won’t be but raises her head regardless. To her utter surprise this time there is and it’s Doctor Cranston. The diminutive woman has a broad smile across her face. A real smile. Amber can tell that it is definitely real this time and not a forced one like she’d glimpsed on the diminutive woman’s face previously.

“How is Kim?” Are the first and only words out of Amber’s mouth in the seconds after she leaps to her feet and is then forced to pretend she isn’t in pain as a result of having spent hours scrunched up on this too rigid chairs. How long has passed Amber cannot say. She’s lost track of time and about the presence of the watch on her wrist. None of that matters. What does matter is the new, whether it was to be good or bad. From the expression on the Doctor’s face she can only conclude that the news is positive and yet something reminds her that perhaps that might not be the case. Then why would she be smiling? Amber says chastising herself for her over cautious and cynical thought.

“I think Kim would be much more qualified to tell you that than I would, so if you don’t mind follow me.” Esmeralda sounds uncharacteristically merry as she gestures for Amber Shamaya to follow her. Amber even notes that the diminutive woman may be considered to have a skip in her step, which doesn’t seem typical of the doctor in any way from what little Amber has seen from her up until this point. It all suggests the procedure may have gone even better than anticipated. Though what affect that might have on Kim, the green haired woman cannot say as she follows in silence with baited breath.

Amber doesn’t have to wait long to find out as she crosses the threshold of the double doors and steps foot into the ‘operating theatre.’  Immediately she is taken aback by the sheer magnificence of the technology around her. She hasn’t a clue what any of it is or does and doubts she could describe it anyway as her eyes flit from one piece to the next. Somehow she finds the sight of each new piece her eyes land on more impressive than the last.

In fact, she is preoccupied with taking in what is around her in the otherwise blank white box of a room that she doesn’t even notice the huddle of other lab coats ahead.

“Please move aside.” Esmeralda orders as she approaches her colleagues who clear a path for her and Amber. If they didn’t Amber would stumble right into at least one, if not all of them as she gazes with wonder.

Now aware of other souls, Amber smiles at them as she passes, until she becomes acutely aware that Doctor Cranston has come to a halt a couple metres ahead. Somehow her diminutive body manages to block what the green haired woman can only guess is Kim. That surprises Amber considering the difference in height between the two women. That is until Doctor Cranston, having flashed another smile, steps aside to reveal a form which deftly rises out of a kneeling position on the floor and to their full height. Amber is confused immediately. The form before her isn’t Kim, at least that is her first reaction. But that first impression quickly evaporates and is replaced with the realisation that this is indeed Kim, in terms of looks. In fact the only difference is the polished metal sheen of the ‘skin.’

“Kim?” Amber mutters unsure for a myriad of reason, none of which she is able to give.

“Yep. It’s me Amber.” Kim says throwing her arms wide, smiling and then stepping forward to embrace the woman who has saved her life. Not just through the use of her money but also because of her determination to not give up even though she barely knew Kim.

Amber can scarcely believe that she and Kim are hugging. Hours ago, however many it has been since she and Kim departed in that corridor out there, it would have been impossible for this reciprocal gesture. Yet here they are now engaging in it. It’s almost too good to believe, though Amber would be lying if she did not admit that she has questions.

“It’ll take a few days but Miss Kelter will be able to shade her skin however she wants once all the cybernetics have bedded in properly.” Doctor Cranston states without any prompting and as if to answer some of Amber’s questions.

There is no way she could have seen the green haired woman’s face, so just must have offered the information freely. Perhaps, it seems most likely, for the benefit of Kim and yet if that is the case then why did she say Miss Kelter. Amber discards the thought caring little as to why and instead turns her focus back to the hug. It lasts almost another full minute before coming to an end with reciprocal smiles and tears rolling down Amber’s face.

Kim, however, marks the dawning of a new age for humanity. An age which will see all humans transfer, in some form or another, to non-organic bodies incapable of suffering from disease, decay or death.